Wolf's Promise (Caedmon Wolves) (2 page)

“Will this be all?” the clerk
at the register asked when she dropped her items on the counter.

Se
lene glanced toward the window
.
The sun was a calm orange and low in the sky. It would get dark soon, and she needed
to hurry. She swallowed down those
reservations
again
. She’d come too far to let doubt and trepidation stop her from helping a friend.

She turned back to answer the clerk
.
“I suppose
so
.”

***

Nick
Hyatt dropped
his backpack to the ground, bent
down, and peered inside the cave.  The cobwebs on the ceiling and
broken tree branches
on the floor told him the space had long been abandoned.
It was the perfect place to rest for the eveni
ng before his big plans tomorrow
.

He crawled inside and pulled a lantern and lighter from his pack. Light illuminated the inside of the small cave
as the flames engulfed the wick
.
Resting his back on the rigid stone, he lifted his decanter of water to his lips and guzzled it down.

It had been hours since he left the confines of the village, and the weight of his burdens seemed to
have already faded away.
A
loner since birth,
he’d
always preferred to
chill in the privacy of his own surroundings. Except these weren’t his normal surroundings. Only a few days had passed since he’d made the decision to sell his bachelor pad back in Montana. He was needed here, in Virginia. Back with his pack.

After
his friend, Devin, rose
to Alpha leader of the Caedmo
n Pack, he’d then honored Nick
by naming him one of his most trusted confidant
s
and advisor
s
.
Second-in-Command.
Nick had
accepted, fully aware that hi
s life would take a sharp turn.

But
t
he direction of the Caedmon Pack had turned
sour
following the death of its previous leader. Devin, on the other hand, wanted to turn it back around…and for the better.

Nick want
ed to help, but he needed refuge from it all before the real grind began.
At times like this, he’d talk wi
th Devin about his issues. N
ow Devin had a mate
t
o love and care for, as well as
press
ing duties of the Pack
inherited from the last leader.
He doubted
the man would have much time for him
anymore
.
Not with a mate…

Mate.
He laughed. Was there even such a thing as a mate? He could remember several years ago when even Devin himself swore up and down that finding a true mate was like finding a piece of thread at the bottom of the ocean. Devin had obviously been wrong. One
woman. A human woman,
for that matter, had turned his friend’s life around
.
To their people, a union such as theirs was highly unlikely. Y
et the truth was in the details.
Devin had found his mate.

Seeing them t
ogether affected Nick in a way he couldn’t fathom.
It wasn’t jealously.
He was happy for
Devin. For all the guy had been through, he deserved a life-long companion.
I
t was a different feeling.
The desire to feel wanted and needed just like he saw how Tamara wanted and needed Devin
.
And likewise, how Devin needed and wanted Tamara.

Nick had
been successful for years in keeping those feelings from ever resu
rfacing
.
He had everything he wanted and needed
within himself
. Wanting for more only c
aused disaster and heartbreak in the long run.
He’d never let another woman break his heart again.

Nick kicked off his boats and slumped deeper against the rocks. He would rest this evening. Tonight, he would hunt. In the morning, he’d do something he hadn’
t done in five long years.

Climb a mountain.

S
elene drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and bobbed her head to the hip hop music blaring from her car speakers. Music was the only thing that really kept her sane on this dismal journey.
At least t
his part of the to
wn
looked a bit more
habitable. Every so often, she would pass a farm house or
a group of re
sidences.

She picked up her cell phone on the seat next to her
. The reception bars had been going in and out for hours.

“
Meirda!
What a piece of shit phone,” she mumbled, as she
checked the time. It was
nearly six o clock. Dusk
surrounded her like a blanket. Night was approaching fast
and the temperature had dropped considerably
, but she wasn’t far from her destination.
According to her notes
on the map
, there should have been a
small motel about five miles up ahead where she’d reserved a
room
for
t
he night.

With eyes still on the
road, she grabbed for the map
and folded it out on the steering wheel.
She wondered how Tamara could have called her from a cell phone with the crappy reception out here. Why would she even come to a town like this? This place was basically a damn forest.

The car swerved and she threw the map down. It slid of
f
the seat onto the floor.

“Shit.” With one hand on the vehicle, she leaned to the side and tried to reach it. Her arms weren’t long enough.

When she g
lanced back up,
sh
e spotted
a sign up ahead. It was nearly hidden by overgrown trees, and the writing was so small that
she had to really focus to read it.

“Caedmon village?”

She hadn’t remembered seeing anything like that on the map. She slowed as she came into full view of the si
gn. There wa
s an unpaved road alongside it.

It wasn’t where she was going, but it certainly piqued her interest.

Shoving her curiosity aside, she looked back at the road.

A large brown animal
stood on the pavement in her path
. Its
big
blue eyes shone brightly against the evening back drop.
Eerie and majestic at the same time.

H
er foot slammed on the brake pedal.

It w
as too late.

As the car slid acr
oss the asphalt
toward the big critter
, she got a better
look at it
unmoving in the middle of the highway.

It was a wolf.
She was sure of it now.

Selene grabbed the steering wheel and jerked it to the left. The car
swerved and jolted. A
ll she glimpsed were trees
just
before she squeezed her eyes shut and prepared herself for impact.

“Oh, dear God.”

Her ear
drum
s
seemed to
exploded
as blood
rush to it. Fingers gripped the wheel like a vice.

The pad of her shoe
was still glued to the brake pedal. Burnt rubber fumes assaulted her senses. The sound of metal crashing into trees alarmed her. Every nerve ending in her body seized in pain.

The impact knocked the breath right o
ut of her, immobilizing her.
Her head spun as she shifted her gaze from left to right, but focused on absolutely nothing but a blur.

Her eyelids folded, and she succumbed.

***

Something tickled
Selene’s face and her eyes flew open.

Murky gray irises
looked
back at her
.

Her head pulsed in enormous pain
as she struggled to focus on the face
.
After her vision cleared, she realized t
here was man standing over her.

She parted her mouth to scream, but her lips were taped together.

Her breath hitched as she jerked
away from him. Something bound
her
, preventing her from moving.

A wide grin spread across the man’s face. “Hello, doll.”

The tone of his voice matched his sinister grin.
He had three long scars on his left cheek as if someone had clawed him across the face. They were raised, ugly impe
rfections.
Scarface
.

Everything about him—
from the way he stood before her with defiance
to his demeaning greeting warned her.

Selene’s heart sp
ed up and her brain worked overtime tryi
ng to backtrack.
What had happened? Why was she lying here?

Pain gripped the entire le
ft side of her body as she attempted
to sit up.
Where am I?
She tried to speak but it was difficult to talk
with the
gag
.

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you?”

“Mmmm, mmm, oooo,
”
she muffled again.
Who are you?

Scarface
laughed. “Shall I repeat myself?”

Her arms were tied together. Her legs were bound too. S
he thrashed a
bout on the bed. The rough cords cut into her wrists and ankles
, adding to the sharp pain radiating through her body.

“I’m going to remove your gag, but when I do…you remain quiet.”

It was
a
threat, but the consequences if she didn’t cooperate were not made clear. She nodded anyway.

As he reached out, she inspected him. His skin complexion nearly matched hers, and there were black and brown streaks throughout his hair. The trench coat he wore made him seem bigger t
han he really was. There was some
sort of chain
worn at the waistband, like
a belt. The fabric of his shirt was stretched tight against his chest.

He
ripped the tape from her lips, causing a stinging pain on her mouth.
She screamed
, but
more from the
shoc
k of it.

He smiled. “I k
new you couldn’t remain quiet
.”

“Who the fuck are you?” The force of her voice surprised her.

“Ooooo.” He stood back and sized her up.
“A feisty one
.”

Despite his facial scars, h
er captor was easy on the eyes
, tall, and built, but from the expression on her face and the way she was tied up on the bed, he didn’t seem like the type of man to play nice.

“What am I doing in this place
?”
Selene looked around at her surroundings. The room was dark and there were no windows. The walls were cinder block and painted with a muted light blue. Upon closer inspection, she realized that what she was sitting on was no more than a cot and a cheap mattress. She frowned. “What is this place?”

“Would you rather be dead in the fucking ditch?
”

“M-my car?” Her
head rang in pain as she tried with all her energy to remember what happened. The wolf. The car. The cra—

“I was in a car crash.”

“What else do
you remember?” he asked, slowly.

She tried so hard to recall everything
, but couldn’t. She shook her head.

Scarface
walked around the other side of the bed. “What were you doing out here…all by your lonesome?”

“Don’t come any closer,” she warned.

“Or what?”

Her captor seemed to think th
is was a game. She was
in an accident,
was now in serious pain,
and the idiot had tied her up.
Did he enjoy this? What if he was a pervert?
A rapist? A serial murderer?
He could have been feeding off her anger.